As the General Election on December 12 looms ever near, I think it important we understand, as Swedish writer, Bjørn Ihler points out, why Brexit and Libraries are two ‘ends of the same stick’, (https://medium.com/@bjornih/why-libraries-and-brexit-are-two-ends-of-the-same-stick-e42fb58d1fd6).

The Save Ealing’s Seven Libraries campaign is still very pertinent and relevant as ever. We’ve been recharging our energies after an exhaustive programme of local protests and actions from this Spring till August. I’ve been told by Ealing’s UNISON’s rep that so far eleven Library workers have lost their jobs (redundancies and early retirements) as a result of Ealing’s Draft Library Strategy. Not great for those affected but better then initially feared (93 in total) so I’m sure our protesting has impacted. Though we cannot be complacent! Staff are demoralised and there's is still uncertainty about their futures.

I’m very clear Tory austerity policies have led to seismic cuts being made to a range of public services including libraries, youth clubs, bus services, street cleaning, park maintenance, hospital care, Sure Start, etc. Labour councils, finding themselves having to make unpopular decisions, which it is said,  will get worse. The Government’s continuing uncertainty over budgets means councils in England would have to “prepare for the worst” and make further service cuts and redundancies over the next few months (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/21/budget-uncertainty-forcing-councils-into-further-cuts-say-mps

Personally, for the General Election I feel strongly we need a Socialist government to undo the damage of Tory austerity and to give the country a vote on Brexit!

Please see my video which outlines my position (https://youtu.be/eqmJ088dyH0

The battle continues...

Thank you for your support

Grace